The Bells of Hell

Elder Kevin R. Duncan made this remark in the most recent general conference: “The adversary is on the alert. His power is threatened by the ordinances and covenants performed in temples, and he does anything he can to try to stop the work. Why? Because he knows of the power that comes from this sacred work…. In the early days of the Church, some would worry when a new temple would be announced, for they would say, ‘We never began to build a temple without the bells of hell starting to ring.’ But Brigham Young courageously retorted, ‘I want to hear them ring again.’” This statement reminded me of Elder Holland’s classic talk, However Long and Hard the Road, in which he spoke about persevering despite the adversity we face. He talked about the building of the Salt Lake Temple and referred to the same quote: “But as Brigham Young also said, ‘We never began to build [any] temple without the bells of hell beginning to ring.’ No sooner was the foundation work finished than Albert Sidney Johnston and his United States troops set out for the Salt Lake Valley intent on war with ‘the Mormons.’ In response President Young made elaborate plans to evacuate and, if necessary, destroy the entire city behind them. But what to do about the temple whose massive excavation was already completed and its 8’ x 16’ foundational walls firmly in place? They did the only thing they could do—they filled it all back in again. Every shovelful. All that soil and gravel that had been so painstakingly removed with those nine thousand man days of labor was filled back in. When they finished, those acres looked like nothing more interesting than a field that had been plowed up and left unplanted.” From the outset the difficulty of building that temple was enormous and the setbacks were seemingly unending. Indeed, the bells of hell called forth an army from the United States just to come out and stop the Saints from building their temple.

                After the army left the troubles building the Salt Lake Temple continued. Elder Holland related, “When the Utah War threat had been removed, the Saints returned to their homes and painfully worked again at uncovering the foundation and removing the material from the excavated basement structure. But then the apparent masochism of all this seemed most evident when not adobes or sandstone but massive granite boulders were selected for the basic construction material. And they were twenty miles away in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Furthermore the precise design and dimensions of every one of the thousands of stones to be used in that massive structure had to be marked out individually in the architect’s office and shaped accordingly. This was a suffocatingly slow process. Just to put one layer of the six hundred hand-sketched, individually squared, and precisely cut stones around the building took nearly three years. That progress was so slow that virtually no one walking by the temple block could ever see any progress at all.” He continued and described the incredible difficulty of getting the rock from the mountain to the city using the painfully slow process of pulling it with oxen. Then there was the work on the railroad, the grasshopper invasions, and other interruptions that slowed the progress on this massive edifice. Elder Holland commented, “By mid-1871, fully two decades and untold misery after it had begun, the walls of the temple were barely visible above ground. Far more visible was the teamster’s route from Cottonwood, strewn with the wreckage of wagons—and dreams—unable to bear the load placed on them. The journals and histories of these teamsters are filled with accounts of broken axles, mud-mired animals, shattered sprockets, and shattered hopes.” But the Saints continued and “squared their shoulders and stiffened their backs and went forward with their might…. God was with these modern children of Israel, as he always has been and always will be. They did all they could do and left the rest in his hands. And the Red Sea parted before them, and they walked through on firm, dry ground. On 6 April 1892, the Saints as a body were nearly delirious. Now, finally, here in their own valley with their own hands they had cut out of the mountains a granite monument that was to mark, after all they had gone through, the safety of the Saints and the permanence of Christ’s true church on earth for this one last dispensation.” After forty years it was finally complete, and one labeled it a “monument to Mormon perseverance.” That is the perseverance and dedication we should have to the Savior and His house.

                This example of the pioneers can encourage us to strive to keep our temple covenants and keep worshipping in His house with that same perseverance. We will also face adversity in our day and will have to continue despite the countless setbacks we encounter. As King Limhi put it, “there remaineth an effectual struggle to be made. Therefore, lift up your heads, and rejoice, and put your trust in God, in that God who was the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; and also, that God who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and caused that they should walk through the Red Sea on dry ground” (Mosiah 7:18-19). No matter how many struggles that have pull us back, we can trust that there remaineth “an effectual struggle” ahead despite the difficulties. As we try to focus on the temple the bells of hell may ring, but the call should move us to “go forward and not backward” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:22). As Elder Duncan commented, “In this mortal life, we will never escape the war, but we can have power over the enemy. That power and strength come from Jesus Christ as we make and keep temple covenants.” As we persist in keeping those temple covenants and coming back again and again we can have His power.